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Alfredo Balcacer

Alfredo Balcacer (b. March 11, 1984) is a guitarist and educator from the Dominican Republic. He graduated with a Bachelor's Degree in Music Performance from Utah State University and a Master's Degree in Music Performance at Western Michigan University. After coming to the United States, he has studied privately with Corey and Mike Christiansen, Fareed Haque, Tom Knific. Alfredo has performed in the U.S., Brazil, Canada and the Dominican Republic, and has taught guitar privately for more than 15 years. Besides being a former member of award-winning groups such a Gold Company, Utah State University Jazz Orchestra, Western Michigan University Jazz Orchestra and Mas Que Nada Latin Ensemble, Alfredo was also a recipient of scholarships from the Dominican Republic, Utah State Caine College of the Arts and the WMU Department of Music. As part of these college ensembles, Alfredo had the opportunity to perform along many artists, most notably Peter Erskine, Gene Bertoncini, Randy Brecker, George Garzone, Peter Eldridge, Cedric Dent, Jeremy Siskind and Deborah Brown. He has also attended and performed at the masterclasses of John Scofield, Chico Pinheiro, Julian Lage, Peter Bernstein and Philip Catherine.

Currently, Alfredo is finishing his first record entitled "Suspended Sea." This record will be released in 2019, and will showcase all original compositions, blending Dominican and American music.

Alfredo Balcacer: 9 Paredes

Read "9 Paredes" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
October 15, 2020

If there's anything that can bind the artistic community in 2020, it's an understanding of isolation's impact. For guitarist Alfredo Balcacer, who was quarantining in his home city of Santo Domingo when COVID-19 closed everybody in, a sense of disorder and frustration, leavened by solace and acceptance, quickly became the norm. But rather than sit by and feel helpless, he filtered those feelings into his music.“9 Parades" (or “9 Walls") speaks to Balcacer's experiences spending months cooped up ...

Album Review

Alfredo Balcacer: Suspended Sea

Read "Suspended Sea" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
September 8, 2019

The only constant is change, and it's in that phrase that we can best suss out the meaning(s) embedded within this debut from Dominic guitarist Alfredo Balcacer. Expressing both roots and evolutionary branches, Balcacer hangs his lines on the sounds of his homeland while extending their reaches across the Caribbean to address his growth as an artist and immigrant in the United States. What that process yields is both genuine and generative in its expression(s). Rhythms fortified ...

Primary Instrument

Guitar, electric

Willing to teach

Beginner to advanced

Credentials/Background

- BM in Music Performance, Utah State University. Guitar pedagogy certificate. - MM in Music Performance Jazz Studies cognate. - BM in Music, National Conservatory Music, Dominican Republic, 6th semester